The Crumbling Facade
by flamewarflipsides
Summary: Kade Burns is up sick in the night, and notices Heatwave is gone. He wanders out looking for him and finds him watching a Griffin Rock resident in her yard. Can Kade teach Heatwave about privacy without revealing the demons in his past? Rated for discussion of privacy, window-peeking, bullying, past sexual harassment, and general unpleasantness


It was surprisingly late when I found him. Late for them, I mean. Me, I've gotten used to being up and around at all hours, but they don't usually venture out. By day, someone might see them. By night, well, their little friends are usually too busy sleeping, getting ready for school. So when I came downstairs, bored and miserable, desperate to get my mind off things, only to find three of them watching some stupid chick flick and one missing, I had to go after him.

After all, he's my ride.

I mean, sure, it's not like we're friends, but what if Doc Greene was having as much trouble sleeping as I was? That lunatic is one brilliant idea from setting everything on fire. I needed to be where Heatwave was if we were gonna team up and stop anything, and not blow his cover. Plus I wanted someone I could bark at a little without Cody getting all up on my case. Besides, it's no fun to argue with the other three. Blades and Boulder are just too nice, and it goes right over Chase's thick head.

Hopping in one of the old fashioned vehicles would have drawn a lot of attention in the odd event someone was out in the night, although probably not as much as a fire truck robot, but I wasn't about to be spotted driving around. That would look weird. Wander around and I could say I got called out to a fire and my sister stole my fire truck. That was believable, at least.

So I trudged through the tunnels under the firehouse, through the dark and dank and smells that made my already churning stomach quiver, trying to follow the smell of pine-scented air freshener… Heh, and he thought I put that in for his benefit. And eventually I found him on top of a hill, looking down below. I knew what he was looking at the moment I spotted him; I knew whose house it was. Thank God it wasn't Haley's.

"You know, if you wanna creep in girl's windows, I could get those guys to put in a slasher flick for you," I snapped at him, pulling my hand away from my stomach before he turned around.

He jumped a little, turning to face me, eyes glowing in the dark. "I'm not creeping in her windows. She's out on the porch, playing on some little device."

"It's still creepy. I didn't even think you guys were into that stuff. What, does Cybertron need women?" I kept walking toward him. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I was moving like I was going to hit him, but the days when I would actually hit anyone were long gone.

"You're disgusting," he practically spat. "I came here for the view. Then this human comes out in the middle of the night and spends time on the porch, and what am I supposed to do, ignore her?"

"No, you're supposed to find a view that's a little more scenic and a little less creepy."

"She sings. She reads things out loud. She projects movies on the wall. Better tastes than my team. What's the problem?" He turned back to look at her.

I followed his eyes. There she was. She hadn't changed much since we were kids. Gained a lot of weight. Stood a lot taller even though she hadn't grown an inch since we were twelve. I couldn't see her face at that distance, but I knew there was a sparkle in her eye that was never there when I was tripping her in the hallway. But other than that, she looked the same. And she still did the same thing every night, apparently. She still sat outside, something entertaining in her left hand, her right hand in her hair.

"The problem is that she doesn't know we're here. It's voyeuristic."

"That's a big word for you, isn't it? Well, I guess it's voyeuristic for my people to be here at all. None of the humans know who we are or what we're doing. They don't know we're watching them. This isn't any different." He huffed, indignant.

I put my face in my hands. "Dude, that's different! They're out in public, where they know anyone might watch them. That's her backyard; it's her property. There's a fence around it. She thinks she has some privacy. She does things there that she wouldn't do in front of other people."

He chuckled, leaning back a little. "Sounds like you've done your share of watching."

"No!" I growled, but the cold glow of his eyes told me I was busted. "I haven't in a long time. And I wasn't doing it to be a sicko. I found a dead cat in the road and I was gonna drop it on her back porch, but when I came up here to scope it out, she was down there reading like that girl from the movie with the puppets."

He shuddered. He actually shuddered. "A dead cat? You were going to drop a dead cat on someone's porch? That's sick, Kade."

"Kids do things like that. She threw one of my linebackers into a locker. We were gonna get even." I crossed my arms, trying not to remember.

"And why did she throw your linebacker into a locker?"

"She said he was grabbing one of her friends someplace you don't grab people."

He leaned in, toward me, bringing his face down near mine. "Was he grabbing her friend?"

I looked away, looking down at her. She was texting with one hand, mousy hair curling around the other. For the first time in my life I wanted to be distracted by that loser's legs, her hair, something, but I couldn't bring myself to think of the way she was a woman, because I couldn't get the image of what happened out of my mind.

"I don't know," I answered.

"You know something."

"He got kicked out of school for grabbing a freshman a year later," I snapped, trying to shut out Haley's tears.

"So she was standing up for the innocent, and you were going to put a dead animal on her porch."

"Look, Heatwave. I wasn't always a very nice guy," I started, "But—"

"You're still not a nice guy." He must have seen my face turning red, because he said, "Oh, you're good, otherwise I'd have said to the Pit with Prime's orders to work with you. But there's nothing nice about you. You're kind of a jerk. You're an even bigger jerk than me."

I stared. I glared. It felt like my heart was leaping up into my stomach, and my stomach was about to leap out of my throat. I wanted to reach over and punch him. That's what I would have done in high school.

Instead I took a breath. "Look, there are two things you can be when you're in school. Popular or picked-on. And if you're not nice, and you're not funny, the best way to be popular is to show everyone you've got something on the losers." I looked back down at her, texting away with one hand, fingers flying. I can't go that fast with two. "She was a nerd. And she tried so hard to be my friend. I had to pick on her. But after a while something snapped, and she started fighting back. And that just made it personal. It wasn't about being popular anymore. It was about beating her."

He chuckled, grim. "No wonder Cody and Frankie would rather spend time with us than their own kind."

"You know what? I'm with you there. I don't even like people. All the stupid things we get called for. Cats in trees, fires around Halloween, stupid, selfish crap. And then you've got guys like Morocco who'll step on anyone. People suck." I sat down next to him, my head swimming, heart throbbing. I didn't feel like standing, much less walking back. "At least you've told me enough about the war that I know you guys aren't much better."

He turned back over the hill. "No, I guess we aren't."

We were silent for a moment, watching her. At one point I saw his head move, and I looked up at him. "She put on music," he explained. "It might be too quiet for you to hear." But she just texted away, switching hands every so often, occasionally using both, or sending one down to tug at her black skirt. I was only really watching her because she was moving. I didn't feel like getting up to look away.

"Why are you up anyway?" He finally asked. "Kinda late for you. Sometimes your dad's around at this hour."

I considered lying. I considered telling him some fib about a phone call with Haley or Dani snoring. But then the truth just came out.

"Dani's cooking."

"What?"

I looked over at him, shrugging, finally bringing my hand back over to my stomach. "Dani's cooking. I got home before dad could cook and I was starving, and she was cooking. Do not ever, ever let Cody actually eat her food, ok?"

"Wait. You're saying it's so bad…"

I nodded. "Made me sick. Yeah. I had to take my mind off it, so I went down to bug you guys. They said you went off by yourself… Seriously not cool, man, what if there was a fire?"

He put his arm down on the ground. "Wait. You're sick and you walked all the way out here just to bark at me?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. So?"

He rolled his little glowy eyes. "I didn't know you cared."

"So why do you sit here and watch this nerd, really?"

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

He leaned forward on his knees. "Well, it started off with her tastes in movies. She likes the kind of stuff I like."

"Yeah, she was the only person at our school to talk to about movies."

"But… one night I came out here and she was reading something out loud. It was boring, but I thought she might put on a movie after. But then the door opened, and some guy peeked out, demanded to know what she was doing outside. But as soon as she heard the door, she just stopped. Froze."

I raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"So here's this human, and this is what she's really like. Then you throw another human in the mix, and all of a sudden she hides. She turns all robotic and just does what she's expected to do. Sound familiar?"

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Everyone does it, Heatwave. We all have secrets. You guys aren't as different as you think." I leaned back, propping myself with my arms. "You think I'm such a glory hog? She did the lineart for our senior banner. I took credit 'cause I painted it."

"Oh great. I'm in the same league as someone you wanted to leave a dead cat for."

I shook my head. "No, Heatwave. You're in the same league as someone I treated like crap for years… who told me what Haley's favorite movie was the moment we changed our relationship status on the internet."

"What?"

"As soon as she saw Haley and I were going out, she sent me a note rambling about some movie they watched together when we were kids. She was giving me advice. After I tried to leave a dead cat on her porch, she gave me advice on how to get the girl I wanted. Just like you." I took a deep breath. "Even though I drive you crazy mugging for the masses-which, by the way way, would blow your cover if I didn't do it… You still help out when we need you."

"What are you saying?"

I grinned. "I may not like you, Heatwave, but I gotta hand it to you. You always do whatever it takes to make things right, no matter what you think of me, or us. If someone who isn't my family has to have my back? I'm glad it's you."

He looked away, staring off into the distance for a while. I looked down, wishing I'd never spoken up. Now I was the sap… At least Cody would be proud.

Heatwave's voice broke me out of the silence. "I can't let you walk all the way back if you're sick. And isn't it kind of cold to be out in a t-shirt? I thought you humans can't take that."

I started to stammer an answer, but he cut me off.

"If I change here, she'll hear me. Walk back to the tunnel and I'll drive you back."

"That's nice of you?"

"I'm not nice, remember? We have to work tomorrow. And if you throw up on my dash, I'm dumping you in the sewers."

I stood up, and so did he. I looked up at him, and for just a minute, I thought he was smiling. But then he started back toward the tunnel. I turned and looked at her one more time before I followed him. She was still facing the wall, moonlight in her hair, but now she had something in each of her hands. Her projector came to life… movie night. And once it started, she went back to her phone, texting, like she wasn't even watching it. Maybe I'd recommend one to her next time I got online. I walked off.

By the time I caught up to Heatwave, he was already a truck. I climbed in, buckled up, leaned back, and the next thing I knew we were inside, and dad was tapping at the window.

"Asleep on the job, you two?"

"I tried waking him," Heatwave grumbled. "Those movies Blades likes say you shouldn't wake a sleepwalker."

I blinked, yawning, stretching out the crick in my neck, and trying not to grin.


End file.
